Avocado intercept

This story from San Diego looks at what could be an explosive issue - the interception of nearly a dozen shipments of Mexican avocados by California inspectors who say they found an invasive pest on hass from south of the border. Note the tension between state inspectors, who survey about 80% of imports, and federal inspectors, who handle only one port. The fact that the state considers the armored scale dangerous and the federal government apparently does not will only raise the suspicions of Mexican growers that the rejections are politically motivated.

From the story:

California pest-control inspectors consider scale a potentially dangerous agricultural pest and, Lyle said, would naturally reject any shipment found with the insect.State officials inspect about 80 percent of the commercial products entering California, representatives from the California Avocado Commission said.
But the federal government does not consider scale dangerous ---- which could mean that the invasive pest is already entering California. U.S. Agriculture Department inspectors currently inspect all shipments coming into the United States from Mexico through Otay Mesa, the only area inspection point still run by the federal agency. Steve Bellamore of the avocado commission said state officials petitioned the federal Department of Agriculture for help Friday. Helene Wright, the federal agency's plant health director for California, said Friday afternoon that a proposal to have federal inspectors at Otay adopt California's position to reject shipments with the bug was sent to the agency's top lawyers.Wright said the agency intended to act quickly on the request, but could not specify how long a decision might take.


TK: The California Avocado Commission is under mounting pressure by its growers to get federal inspectors on the same page as the state. We'll see how this plays out over the next few days, but growers in California are restless.